


Please Come Fix My Black And Blue Heart

by killerxcanaries



Category: Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist (TV)
Genre: Absent Parents, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, F/M, Father-Son Relationship, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Inspired by Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist, Max Richman Deserves Better, Max and Zoey (Temporarily) Babysitting Miles, Protective Maggie Clarke
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-23
Updated: 2021-01-23
Packaged: 2021-03-15 18:47:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28943199
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/killerxcanaries/pseuds/killerxcanaries
Summary: Max's father comes to visit, and Zoey offers to accompany Max to their lunch. Max's father still hasn't changed. (based on a possible event in 2x05 when we meet Max's father)
Relationships: Zoey Clarke & Max Richman, Zoey Clarke/Max Richman
Comments: 2
Kudos: 21





	Please Come Fix My Black And Blue Heart

**Author's Note:**

> i made max's dad pretty mean in this and i'm hoping max's dad isn't actually this mean when we meet him ?? but also he hasn't ever told max he was proud of him so i can't imagine him being that nice of a guy...

Max ran a hand over his face as he waited for Zoey to meet him for lunch, letting out a nervous breath he didn't realize he was holding in. His day had been turned upside down upon receiving a text from his father asking to meet up one day, and Max still hadn't responded in fear of what the event would actually end up being like. Max was brought out of his thoughts as he heard the bell above the door to the shop ring as someone entered, looking over to see Zoey walking into the place and over towards his table. 

"Hey, what's wrong?" Zoey asked softly as she sat down across from him, and Max forced a smile back onto his face before shaking his head.

"Nothing's wrong, don't worry about it. I just didn't get a ton of sleep last night and I'm still a little tired, y'know?"

Zoey laughed softly, nodding.

"Unfortunately, I know that feeling very well."

"Are you still having those nightmares?" Max asked gently, and Zoey shrugged, fiddling with her ring.

"They've gone down to every other night now, I think? I try to sleep as much as I can on the other nights to make up for my loss on those ones."

"I'm glad that you're back to getting at least a little bit of sleep again, though," Max said, and Zoey smiled softly, thanking him.

They ate their lunch together, and after a little while passed Max began to poke absentmindedly at his food while his mind started spiraling.

"My dad's coming to visit," Max said suddenly, and Zoey couldn't have hid the surprise from her face even if she had tried her hardest to.

"Wait, are you being serious?" Zoey asked quietly, and Max shrugged, still not having looked up from his food.

"Yep. Completely and totally serious, unfortunately," Max said with a hint of sarcasm in his voice. 

"Well, at least you'll get to see your dad again after so long, right?" Zoey tried to reason with him, but Max shook his head.

"Believe me, I wish I didn't have to see him at all. After the last time I saw him, I think I would have rathered him come out, not tell me he was here, and then go back home without having made any contact with me at all. At least if I had ran into him outside somewhere, I could've lied and made up an excuse to stay away from him. Since he's out for a few days I can't just tell him I'm busy all of the days for every second of them."

Zoey nodded softly, taking another bite of her food before looking up at Max.

"Why don't you go out to lunch with him one day? You can use work as an excuse and pretend Mo texted you, or something like that," Zoey suggested.

"It's alright, Zo. I appreciate how much you're trying to help me out, but I think I just have to suck it up and go through seeing him for a day," Max said with a soft smile that Zoey could tell was extremely fake.

"Start with a lunch just so that you have an escape plan if one is needed. I can go with you and keep you company."

Max's eyes went wide and he laughed softly before he realized that Zoey wasn't actually joking.

"Wait, you're being serious?"

"Why not?" Zoey asked with a shrug. "You have to spend time with your dad and don't want to be alone with him, and my schedule is pretty much free whenever I need it to be, seeing as I have zero social life and I can make my own hours with having power at the office and all. Seriously, Max, I don't mind."

Max watched Zoey for a few moments to see if her soft smile would falter or if one of her lying ticks would happen, but Zoey seemed to be telling the truth.

"You don't have to do that-"

"You helped me when I was going through everything with my dad, and I want to repay you. Spending one lunch with you and your dad doesn't even come close to what I owe you, but it's at least a start."

Max smiled softly, slowly nodding his head.

"Alright...thanks, Zo. If you want to back out at any point, just let me know, alright? I promise I won't hate you for doing so."

"I'm in this with you now, no matter what. You're stuck with me, Max."

Max couldn't help the way his heart fluttered at that statement, looking down and going back to eating his food to try to hide his emotions from the girl across from him.

\----------

Zoey knew that Max and his father were not on good terms, and that they hadn't even spoken over the phone in years. Besides that, Max hadn't told her much of anything else because he always gave the excuse of not wanting Zoey to focus on a father other than her own while Mitch was sick. It was sweet, sure, but Zoey definitely wished she had been a little more prepared when she walked into the restaurant alongside Max and saw the annoyed-looking man for the first time.

"Maxwell," Max's father Alan said sternly, shaking his son's hand as if he was a robot and was being forced to do the action against his will.

"Hi Mr. Richman, I'm Zoey Clarke," Zoey said as she extended her hand out towards the man, who looked at both her and her hand as if they were foreign objects before reluctantly meeting her hand with his own.

Max glanced over at Zoey, who was looking at the menu, wishing that he could warn her just a little more of the events that were very likely to be occurring that night. Max's father glanced between the two before looking back at Max.

"So, how do you two know each other? Are you dating, or did he knock you up, or something?"

Max's eyes went wide and he expected Zoey's to have done the same, but she had complete control over her composure, it seemed.

"Actually, sir, Max and I have been best friends for years now. We met on the first day of orientation at SPRQPoint and have been close ever since."

Sure, Zoey wanted to be able to say more. She wanted to tell Max's father that they were dating. She wanted to tell him that Zoey was in love with his son. She wanted to tell him that she hoped to marry Max one day and grow old with him. Instead, she settled with "best friends", because it wasn't exactly a lie- they _were_ best friends, it just wasn't the full truth. And it seemed that introducing them as friends and then as more down-the-line would settle over with Max's father better than friends, to dating, to back to friends again that still both have feelings for the other person.

"Maxwell, are you still working at that coding place? You know that you have so much more potential than just sitting at a desk for all hours of the day, mindlessly typing up gibberish on a computer keyboard."

"A-Actually, Dad, I don't work at SPRQPoint anymore," Max said, and Zoey could feel the nervousness radiating off of his body.

"Then what job do you have right now, exactly?"

"I'm actually in the process of starting a new business with one of our friends. We've already got almost everything sorted out that we needed to get done before opening."

Alan scoffed, shaking his head.

"So you declined an offer to join the family's already-successful business, quit your job at another business, and now you're going to start a brand new business from scratch that could fail miserably on the first day it opens? You could have done so much better, Maxwell, and yet you just keep pushing everything away when it's not exactly how you want things to be."

"Come on, Zoey. We tried, and I can't be here anymore," Max said, standing up and putting a hand on Zoey's back as they began to walk away from the table.

"Just keep running away from anything you deem to be a problem, Maxwell. You do that so well," Alan said.

Zoey stopped in place, her blood running cold as she let the man's words settle in.

"Zoey, let's go," Max whispered, but Zoey turned and walked back over to the table, placing her hands on top of it angrily.

"Max is incredible at every single thing he does, and he's destined to do great things in the world. Just because he might not be doing everything in his life exactly how you had planned for his life to be going doesn't mean that he's failing at anything. Max and I have been best friends ever since we met, and I know him more than you do because you haven't been involved in his life as much as I have. And that's really sad, actually, because Max is one of the best people that I know and he doesn't deserve to have a father not only not be proud of the life that he has been making for himself, but also not even try to contact him at all unless it's absolutely necessary to do so."

Alan let out a scoff, about to open his mouth to respond when Zoey held up a finger.

"I'm not done yet."

Max looked down at the table as his head started pounding and tears began to fill his eyes, knowing that not only was it wrong to even think about going to lunch, but it was even worse letting Zoey offer to come to lunch with him. Max knew how horrible of a person Alan was before that day and had been hoping his father had changed as a person even just the smallest bit, but he should have known better.

"My family is one of the most important things in my life, and my dad and I were extremely close," Zoey said, knocking Max out of his thoughts as his head whipped back up to look at her.

_Great job, Max. The girl's father dies and she's still grieving his death, and yet you're more worried about your father being a dick to even think about how watching your interaction with him might make her feel._

"He died because of a illness that wasn't able to be treated, and my family and I have been having a rough time since he's been gone. We used to spend every single day together, especially in the last few months that we had left with him. I know that you and Max aren't close, and I get that change isn't going to happen overnight. But living without a father is really hard to do, and you better hope that Max can find it somewhere within that huge, caring heart of his to even _think_ about forgiving you sometime in the rest of your lifetime.

"I would kill for another hundred memories to make with my father and to have him watch me as I continued to grow up and become more successful. My parents have been more like parents to Max from the second that they met him than you have ever been to him in these past few years. While it's hard to not have your father in your life, I can't even imagine how hard it must have been to have gone through losing two, and yet Max has still been going on with his life somehow and proving to everyone how successful of a person he really is.

"Max deserves the absolute world, and he doesn't deserve to have his own father treat him as if he's not good enough at anything that he does. Because Max _is_ , and no matter what anyone else has to say, he can do absolutely anything that he puts his mind to. I would do anything I could to make Max realize how incredible he truly is, which is why I was the one that offered to come here with him today, because I was hoping that you had changed from the person Max had told me you used to be.

"I might have been wrong, but you are so much more wrong than I will ever be in my life. I choose to believe that most people in the world are good, and end up finding out that a lot of them aren't actually as good as I thought they were. But you? You take one look at your son and only see disappointment that should _never_ be cast towards him.

"Max is an amazing guy and you should be proud to be able to call him your son, yet you don't even have the heart to call him anything other than 'Maxwell'. I really hope that one day you prove me wrong once again and realize just how horrible you have been all these years in not seeing how great your son and his accomplishments truly are."

"Come on, Zo," Max said, wiping away a tear that had fallen down his cheek before putting a hand on her back.

Zoey walked out with Max, blinking away her own tears and they started walking down the sidewalk. Zoey let out a sigh, looking up at Max as they walked.

"I'm sorry," she said softly, and Max looked back down at her in confusion.

"Sorry for what?"

"It was my idea for you to meet up with your dad for lunch, and I should have just taken your word for it when you said that your father wasn't a great guy. I'm sorry for making you meet up with him, Max-"

"You have nothing to apologize for, Zoey. None of this is your fault, and it isn't your fault that my dad just hasn't changed since I saw him last."

"You shouldn't have to deal with that from your own father, though. That's horrible how he just...you don't believe anything that he said to you, right?"

Max let out a sigh, shaking his head after a few moments.

"No. He gets in my head, but when I was younger, after a while I perfected the ability to not let his words affect me too much."

The two finally arrived at SPRQPoint, and an even-deeper frown formed on Zoey's face.

"Do you want me to take the rest of the day off? Or do you wanna come hang out in my office with me for the rest of the day?" she asked, but Max shook his head.

"I think I just need a little time alone after..."

"Yeah, I get it. But you don't have to be alone, and if you need me just stop by or let me know and I'll be there."

"Thanks, Zo."

Max wrapped his arms around Zoey as they hugged goodbye, both turning and going off in their own directions before Max stopped, whipping back around.

"Zoey!" he called, causing her to stop and look back at him. "Did you mean what you said back there?"

Zoey nodded, smiling softly.

"All of it!" she called back to him, taking a few steps backwards before turning and walking into the building, leaving Max with his thoughts about not only his father now, but also about Zoey.

\----------

A few days had passed, and neither had heard anything from Alan. Maggie Clarke sat at her computer, working on a new part of the project she had been hired to complete, when her computer went off with a notification. She clicked onto her Facebook profile to see that she had received a message from someone that went by "Alan Richman", putting the pieces together that Alan must be the same Alan that Max had mentioned a few times as being his absent father. Maggie nervously opened the message, a frown on her face.

**_Alan Richman:_ ** _Hello, Maggie. I doubt that he has ever talked to you about me, but I am Maxwell Richman's father. I had met Zoey_ _Clarke_ _earlier_ _in the week_ _and, after looking through Maxwell's followers, assumed that you might be her mother, hopefully? Maxwell and I haven't talked much in the past few years, and looking back, I deeply regret that. Your daughter was actually the one that knocked some sense into me, and I realize now how horrible I have been to my_ _son._ _First of all, I apologize for your loss. Zoey seemed sweet and I am sure that you and the rest of your family are as well._ _Zoey told me about how you and Mitch were the closest things to family that Maxwell had since he and Zoey met, and I wanted to thank you for that. That should not have had to be the case, as I should have been there for him and I realize that now, but thank you for being there for him when I wasn't. I know this is a lot to ask, and I understand if you say no, but I wanted to attempt to reach out anyway. I came out for the week to hopefully get a chance to see my son, but I am going back on Sunday. I know that I've messed up way more than one person ever should have, and I deeply regret that. I was wondering if there was any way you could let me know Maxwell's address, because I want to at least write him letters from time to time. I know that he might never even open any of them, or might read them and never respond, but I want to at least show him that I want to try to reach out from now on. I would have just asked Maxwell myself but knew that he would not have answered my texts or calls, and since you were Max's family I was hoping you might know where he lives? If you don't want to give it to me I'd understand, but thank you in advance for even just reading this, Maggie._

Maggie contemplated what she should respond to a message like that with, letting out a soft sigh as she began to type back a response before she could allow herself to think too far into everything.

**_Maggie Clarke:_ ** _Hello, Alan. Max is an incredible man, and even though this morning might have been Max's second chance that he wanted to give to you, I'll give you one more. If you blow it again this time, that's all that I am going to give you._ _Come to our house Friday night, Max'll be here at 5. If you can make up with him again and get on good terms, then I'll give you his address if he doesn't himself. If Friday night comes and things aren't fixed between you two, and if Max says that he doesn't want you knowing his address, I can't give that to you. I appreciate the fact that you want to fix things with your son, but you'll have to hope that it's not too late in Max's eyes for you to change._

\---------- _  
_

Friday night came around quickly, and Emily and David were putting plates on the table while Zoey and Max gave them a short break as they watched Miles.

"This kid is adorable, I swear," Max said with a soft laugh, and Zoey nodded.

"Right, Miles? You're adorable," she said as she tickled his stomach, making the baby erupt into giggles that made Zoey and Max laugh as well.

The doorbell rang, and Zoey looked over at Max in confusion.

"We weren't expecting anyone else, right?" she asked, and Max just shrugged.

"Not that I know of."

Max took over watching Miles for a minute as Zoey got up and went to the door, her eyes going wide after opening it.

"W-What are you doing here?" Zoey asked quietly, nervous to both be around Max's father again and to see what type of fight was going to break out if he talked to Max himself again.

"I thought about what you said, and you were right about everything. I know it might be too late for anything to happen, but I wanted at least one more chance to apologize to my son," Alan said, and the fact that Alan called Max his _son_ made Zoey's heart constrict even more.

On one hand, Zoey wanted to let the man in. She hoped for the best in people, and it seemed as if Alan was here for the right reasons. On the other hand, though, Zoey didn't want to turn their family dinner into a distraught event due to her letting Alan in.

"Zoey, who's at the door?" Max asked as he came towards the door with Miles on one hip.

Max's eyes went wide as he saw his father standing there, and Alan's eyes went wide as he saw the baby in Max's arms.

"Is he..." Alan trailed off, but Max shook his head.

"No, this is Miles, Zoey's brother's son."

"He's an adorable baby," Alan said softly before looking back up at Max's face.

"Can we please talk, Max?" Alan asked softly, and Max's eyebrows immediately skyrocketed upwards.

"Um...yeah, sure. Come in, I guess."

Zoey took Miles from Max's arms and sat down on the couch with the boy, playing peek-a-boo with Miles and getting him to giggle again.

"It should not have taken me this long to apologize to you, and it wasn't until Zoey was practically grilling me with that speech of hers that it even occurred to me just how wrong I've been. When your brother grew up and followed on in the path of the family business, your mother and I expected you to follow. We were disappointed when you had wanted to go off and do your own thing, and while your mother came around quickly, I hadn't. I wanted you to grow up doing exactly what I had done with my life, and didn't allow myself to realize that you could have been a lot less successful at the family business than you are now, about to start a business of your own."

Alan shook his head as he looked down before looking back up at Max.

"I know that one single apology is going to do absolutely nothing in comparison to the years and years that I have treated you horribly. And I know that even just me apologizing right now might not even equate to any form of anything from me in your mind. But I wanted to at least attempt to make things slightly better between us before I left this weekend. I couldn't just go back after everything that happened without even trying at all."

Max looked down, nodding slowly.

"Thank you," Max said softly, looking back up at Alan. "I know that must have taken a lot to do, and even though it's just one out of the many apologies I should have gotten throughout the years, at least it was one."

Alan nodded gently, and Max let out a soft sigh.

"I'm not going to allow myself to change what I think about you this second, or even overnight. But if we can still keep in contact after you leave then maybe, over a period of time, we can at least get to have a better relationship than we have right now."

"I would really like that, Max."

Max's eyes were immediately drawn over to Zoey when both she and Miles began laughing again, a smile forming on his face without Max even realizing as he watched her.

"Max?" Alan asked, pulling Max's gaze away from Zoey and back towards his father.

"Yeah?" Max asked, tucking his hands into his pockets to refrain from nervously playing with them.

"You keep that girl of yours close, alright? I can see from the way you look at Zoey that you really like her, and you deserve someone like her in your life."

Max felt like the wind had gotten knocked out of him, opening his mouth to respond but finding that not even a sound was coming out.

Alan shrugged, smiling a little wider.

"You love her, right?" he asked, and Max shrugged himself.

"Yeah...yeah, I do."

"Well, don't let her get away then, alright? She's a feisty one, I like her."

Max let out a nervous laugh, nodding.

"I like her too," Max said, looking over at the redhead with a soft smile on his face, watching as she began attempting to play patty cake with Miles while moving his hands for him.

"Maxwell?" Alan asked, bringing Max's gaze back to his father again.

"You've really gotten a handle on your life around here. I still wish you would have stayed closer to home and worked with the family business, but I'm glad that you're happy. You really do deserve someone good like her in your life."

"Thanks...Dad," Max whispered, knowing that if he tried to make his words come out any louder his voice definitely would have cracked.

Alan placed hand on Max's shoulder, smiling softly.

"I'm proud of you, son," he said, walking away and going outside to talk to Maggie.

Max stood in place, tears forming in his eyes at the words that his father had just said to him.

_"I'm proud of you, son."_

Max had never once heard his father call him his son, or even just anything besides "Maxwell", let alone say he was proud of Max. But he just did, and it was because Zoey had made him realize that he actually was proud of who Max had become.

Emily came back into the room and took Miles from Zoey, as Emily said it was time to feed him. After Zoey saw Alan step out back she looked over to Max, seeing him frozen in place. Zoey walked over and went in front of the boy, worry washing over her face as she saw the tears in his eyes.

"Max, hey. What happened?" Zoey asked softly, the hand resting on Max's arm bringing him back to the present.

"Zoey..." Max whispered, shaking his head before wrapping Zoey in a bone-crushing hug. "Thank you."

"What are you thanking me for?" Zoey asked gently, and Max smiled a little to himself.

"He called me ' _son'_ , and ' _Max'_ , and he said he was _proud of me_ ," Max whispered, and Zoey quickly pulled back from the hug, her face immediately lighting up.

"He did?" she asked excitedly, and Max laughed softly as a few tears rolled down his face that he wiped away.

"Yeah, Zo, he did. And it was all because of what you told him at lunch."

Zoey smiled widely, shaking her head.

"That's incredible, Max. I'm really glad he came around, you deserve to have your father be proud of you."

Max wrapped her in a tight hug again, rubbing her back up and down slowly.

"Your dad would be incredibly proud to see how much you've been growing since he's been gone, Zo. Both in work and as a person, you've been amazing lately, and he sees that every day."

"Thanks, Max," Zoey said softly, wiping a tear of her own.

They pulled back softly, Zoey's arms around Max's neck and Max's around her waist. They stared into each other's eyes for what felt like ages before Zoey opened her mouth again.

"I love you, Max. A-And I know we both agreed to put 'us' on hold, but it's so much harder living every single day as your friend again when I love you so much that it's hard to even think about you being just my friend. I want to be able to kiss you when we're both happy, or walk around holding your hand whenever we feel like it, or be able to be all cute and do things for and with each other again. I know that we're not together right now, and I know it was mainly because you wanted to give me time. I get that, I do. B-But after Monday, I haven't had a single nightmare and I think it's because of you and your dad."

"How?" Max whispered.

"I was focusing on all of the things that my father wouldn't ever be able to see. He wouldn't get to see us. He wouldn't get to see me as boss. He wouldn't get to see Miles grow up. He wouldn't get to be involved in all of the inside jokes my family comes up with. But when we were with your dad at lunch, I realized that I should be focusing on the memories that we did get to make with him instead of the ones we won't get to make. We tried to spend every day with him like it was our last after he was diagnosed, and those are some memories that I'll never be able to forget. Plus, like you said, he's watching over us still right now, so even if he's not physically here to enjoy things with us anymore, he'll always be here in spirit."

Max smiled softly, nodding.

"I'm really glad that you haven't been having the nightmares anymore, Zo. I know how hard this last year's been on all of you, and you didn't deserve to have to add nightmares and not sleeping to that list."

Zoey smiled softly.

"I was serious, Max. I really love you, and whenever you want to try us again, I'm ready."

Max smiled softly, shrugging.

"Is now too soon?" he asked, making Zoey laugh softly as he began to laugh as well.

"God, you're adorable," Zoey whispered before pressing her lips against Max's, appreciating the warm feeling that washed over her body at the fact that she was finally able to express her emotions to Max again in a way other than by hugging or high-fiving her "friend".


End file.
